Property Crimes

Eagle police are looking for whoever broke into a model home over the weekend and took almost $10,000 worth of stuff from inside— including dishes, blankets, a coffee table and chairs, a full-length mirror, a rug, a bottle of shampoo, and two boxes of cereal.

The model home is in the Henry Fork subdivision, located in the Park and Floating Feather roads neighborhood.

The burglary occurred between 6 p.m. Friday and 9:45 a.m. Saturday. Someone threw a softball-sized rock through a glass door on the back of the home to get inside.

There have been at least five other break-ins at vacant homes — either empty or in the process of being sold — in Ada County since September. In those cases, stoves and/or refrigerators were stolen from inside.

Unlike the break-in from over the weekend in Eagle, most of those cases did not involve forced entry as it appeared thieves were able to get in through unlocked windows.

It appears Ada County may have a non-partisan political sign stealer in Districts 15 and 16. Idaho House candidates Steve Berch and James Silsby report having numerous signs grabbed up Nov. 3, 4, and 5.

Berch, a Democrat, lost to Republican Lynn Luker in District 15. Silsby, a Republican, lost to Democrat Hy Kloc in District 16.

Both men checked with the Ada County Highway District and Idaho Transportation Department but employees with each agency said they did not take the signs. The candidates also checked with local plastic recycling companies, but no one brought the signs there either.

Both men are now out hundreds of dollars worth of signage.

Berch posted campaign signs along major roads in District 15, including Fairview Avenue, Five Mile Road, Milwaukee Street, and Franklin Road.

Someone took dozens of the plastic signs the night of Nov. 4 but left the metal stakes behind. Berch wasn’t sure how many of the signs were missing but estimated the cost was in excess of $500.

Silsby said he had over 100 signs taken from Nov. 3 to 5. District 16 covers much of northwest Boise and Garden City, including large portions of Chinden Boulevard, State Street, and Glenwood Street, and Veterans Memorial Parkway. Silsby also says he is out over $500 for the cost of those signs.

Candidates must remove political signs from the public right-of-way 48 hours after the election is over. All the signs in question were taken before that time was up.

Police cited 94-year-old Robert Halliday for driving too fast for conditions in connection with the crash.

Officers are still investigating what happened and could add a charge for leaving the scene and not reporting the damage.

The crash occurred just before 3 p.m. Monday near the Old Barn Drive/Creekfield Place intersection just east of Eagle Road.

A witness saw a gold or champagne-colored sedan drive into the post and knock it down. The driver — who the witness described as “elderly” — then kept going. The witness didn’t know who the driver was but tell Eagle Police about what happened.

That information and some photos went out over the ACSO Twitter account and local media outlets. Eagle Police eventually identified Halliday as the driver after an acquaintance of his saw a report on the news Tuesday morning about what happened.

A group of 13-year-old boys appear to be at least partially responsible for more than $15,000 worth of damage to an unoccupied home in Star last month.

Sometime between Oct. 14 and Oct. 19, someone entered into a home in the Star Road/State Street neighborhood and damaged sheetrock, spray-painted the walls, broke out windows, burned the carpet, and left trash inside a home that was unoccupied at the time.

The homeowner discovered the damage and called Star Police on Oct. 20. Officers found widespread damage throughout the home. Appliances were spray-painted. A sliding glass door was broken. Most of the rooms had holes in the sheetrock. Deputies also found plastic water bottles that had been turned into marijuana pipes.

A short time after officers began collecting evidence and doing interviews they identified a group of thee 13-year-old boys who lived in the area as suspects. All the boys admitted to being inside the home when it was vandalized.

Ada County Juvenile prosecutors will review the evidence and decide if charges like burglary and malicious injury to property will be filed against the teens. Charges are also possible against other teens if it is determined they were in the house when the vandalism occurred.

Thanks to public input, deputies have identified a woman caught using credit cards stolen from inside three cars in Eagle late last month.

Those people who had their cars broken into and wallets or purses stolen since Sept. 22 got reports that someone used their stolen credit or bank cards.

We put out a picture of a woman seen using those cards at local stores on social media sites and pretty soon we had enough info that we are able to identify her. Detectives tracker her down and interviewed her. Charges against her are pending.

We’d just like to say thank you so much to everyone who helped in this case.

Here’s a picture of the woman using stolen cards local retailers earlier this month.

All three car burglaries appear to be crimes of opportunity.

On Sept. 22, a resident of in the Eagle/Beacon Light roads neighborhood forgot to lock her truck while it was in the driveway of her home that night. When she went out to her car in the morning, she discovered her wallet was missing.

On Oct. 1, it appears someone went into an open garage in the Floating Feather Road/Ballantyne Lane neighborhood overnight and took a purse left inside a car.

The third break in happened on Oct. 7 in the Island Woods subdivision west of Eagle Road. Someone broke into an unlocked car overnight and swiped a backpack that had credit cards inside.

The best way to avoid being a victim of a crime like this is to lock your car every time you get out of it, no matter where it is. It’s also an excellent idea to never leave purses, wallets, or anything else that holds financial transaction cards in a car whether it’s locked or not.

A 34-year-old man found walking away from a house fire on Hill Road Thursday night — wearing clothes with burn marks and that smelled like petroleum — is charged with first degree arson.

Patrick Sean Irving is being held in the Ada County Jail.

Ada County Sheriff’s deputies, Boise police, and Boise Fire investigators are determining if Irving is involved in the two other house fires in the 6700 block Hill Road since Tuesday.

There is evidence at least two of the fires — at 6720 Hill Road — were lit on purpose. Boise Fire investigators have not yet determined a cause for the fire which gutted the house next door earlier this week.

Fire crews were sent to 6720 Hill Road just before 9:30 p.m. Thursday after getting 911 calls about a house fire.

It was the second time fire crews went to that address Thursday, as someone tried to set the same home on fire around 1:30 a.m. the night before.

For the first call, the people who lived at the home were able to put the fire out before it spread. On Thursday night, they were able to do that again with the assistance of Boise fire crews.

Fire crews on their way to the home Thursday night saw a man walking away from the fire, wearing a hooded sweatshirt and jeans, on Hill Road headed towards Gary Lane. They called that description into Ada County dispatch.

A Garden City Police officer found the man – later identified as Irving — walking on Hill Road moments later.

It was during that interaction where officers detected the strong odor of petroleum and saw Irving’s clothes had burns. Detectives interviewed Irving before arresting him and booking into the jail.

Law enforcement’s interaction with Irving began last week.

Boise Police arrested Irving on Oct. 17 for trespassing at a vacant home at 6700 Hill Road. Irving was booked into the jail on a misdemeanor charge of unlawful entry. He posted the $300 bond and was released later that day.

Boise Fire crews were sent to the same home at 6700 Hill Road just before 6 a.m. Tuesday. That home was actively burning when crews arrived. Crews put out the blaze but vacant home was badly damaged. Fire officials have not yet determined the cause but do know it started in the living room.

The next fire call came for the home next door, at 6720 Hill Road, just before 1:30 a.m. Thursday. It appears someone set up a pile of debris next to the garage door and set it on fire.

The next call came just before 9:30 p.m. Thursday.

People called 911 reported a fire and hearing shots.

It was later determined that a resident of the home fired a warning shot into the ground to scare away whoever tried to light the house on fire.

Irving will make his initial court appearance Friday afternoon.

The crime of first degree arson is punishable by up to 25 years in prison.

A persistent group of thieves known as the “felony lane gang” have been going through parking lots in the Treasure Valley — including health clubs, stores, public parks, and even churches — over the last several months. They break car windows to get at wallets, purses, backpacks, or other bags that may have credit cards, bank cards, and check books.

That’s the first way people are victimized. The second round of damage can happen only hours later when those thieves use the stolen checks and credit cards at local banks.

The FBI has described the Felony Lane Gang as “a group of thieves based in Florida, that travels across the United States stealing identities and checkbooks from unattended cars. With the stolen checkbooks and driver’s licenses, the gang cashes checks using the drive through lane of banks. The farthest lane from video cameras and tellers have been dubbed the ‘felony lane’ because of the ease with which false identities can be used to cash checks.”

The scam works like this. Thieves drive around parking lots until they see a purse or backpack. They park the car and someone walks up with a metal window-punching device. They break the glass, snap up the bag from inside the car, and leave in a matter of seconds.

Once they get the driver’s license of a female victim, they try to match the picture of that ID with a woman they use in the scam, oftentimes using a wig. That woman then drives to a bank, goes in the farthest car lane from the window, and attempts to cash a check.

The thieves have a good idea of how much money they can cash a check for without have to go inside – in some cases as much as $2,000. They also steal local license plates to keep the cars inconspicuous.

It can be difficult to catch the ringleaders of the scam, who generally aren’t in the cars when the actual check fraud occurs.

In mid-August, ACSO deputies arrested two women, Danielle Cook, 28 and Jennifer Gallagher, 31, for attempting to cash fraudulent checks at a bank in Eagle.

Both women were wearing wigs and were in a car later determined to be stolen from Florida. Gallagher told deputies she came to Boise from Fort Lauderdale area just days before.

They were charged with two felony counts each of grand theft and burglary. Those charges were dropped late last month when both women were indicted in federal court on similar charges.

Deputies arrested a 25-year-old man and 37-year-old woman from Georgia in June in connection with the same scam.

Octavious Walker is charged with felony counts of burglary, and conspiracy to commit grand theft. Walker is being held in the Ada County Jail on a $1 million bond. His jury trial is set to begin Nov. 17 in Ada County 4th District Court.

Carolyn Paige Griffith, who was seen wearing a wig and driving the car through the “felony lane” at several area banks while trying to case fraudulent checks, is charged with the same crimes. Her trial is set to begin in December. Griffith was released from jail in July after posting a $150,000 bond.

ACSO deputies and Boise Police arrested Walker and Griffith June 11th – the day after three cars were broken into across the Treasure Valley.

Walker and Griffith tried to use stolen ID’s and checks from those car burglaries to withdraw thousands of dollars from Treasure Valley banks.

Officers were able to catch them at a local hotel, where they found evidence linking them to the car burglaries and the check fraud case, including financial papers and a spring-loaded window punch.

Thieves have broken into a least five Ada County homes — either vacant or in the process of being sold — since mid-September and stolen stoves and/or refrigerators from inside.

In four of the five break-ins, there is no sign of forced entry. In one case, thieves broke through the back door of a garage. It appears the thieves may be getting in through unlocked windows. They then steal the stove or refrigerator and take them out through a door.

The thieves like to steal stainless steel appliances. It is unclear how the thieves are identifying which homes to break-in to.

People with vacant homes or in the process of selling their homes are urged to keep all doors and windows locked at all times — and check on those properties regularly.

Outdoor motion detector lighting around doors can help. Talk to your neighbors. Ask them to keep an eye on a home you are trying to sell or have to leave vacant — and if they see anything strange going on to call Ada County dispatch at 377-6790.

The best way to avoid being a victim of “jockeyboxing” — which means people walking through neighborhoods at night and stealing whatever they can grab from unlocked cars — is to lock your car. All the time.

That way, if you mistakenly leave your cell phone, purse, wallet, ipod, or change behind when you park in a driveway or street, you won’t be like the dozens of people in Eagle who had items like that taken from their during the last week of August. Or like the hundreds of people every year in the Treasure Valley who fall victim to such car burglaries.

It’s a totally preventable crime. You just have to lock your stuff up.

A 19-year-old Eagle man has admitted breaking into as many as 150 cars between Aug. 25 and Aug. 28. A 17-year-old boy acted as a lookout. That boy also broke into several cars.

Andrew B. McCormick got caught when one of the people who had stuff taken from his car saw McCormick wearing his backpack at a local video arcade on Aug. 29.

Eagle police found McCormick moments later. He eventually confessed to the break-ins. Officers located the 17-year-old later, and he also admitted what he did.

Once caught, the teens cooperated with police, showing them the neighborhoods where they broke into unlocked cars.

The teens would take whatever they could find in the cars, including change, cash, camera cards, knives, papers, cords, headphones, glasses, CDs and DVDs, laptops, backpacks, cigarettes, and other items.

While that case was still pending, Eagle Police arrested McCormick and the 17-year-old boy Sept. 23 for breaking into cars Hill/Horseshoe Bend roads area.

Unlike the August case, where the information was routed to Ada County prosecutors for an arrest warrant, officers arrested McCormick and the 17-year-old on felony burglary charges that day.

Warrants filed in connection with the August car burglaries went out Wednesday. McCormick is now charged with four counts of felony burglary.

McCormick is being held in the Ada County Jail on a $20,000 bond.

The crime of felony burglary is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The 17-year-old is being held in the Ada County Juvenile Detention Center.